Heroine's Lament
by littleshadowlight
Summary: It's been ten years since Sarah made the wish that lead her on a journey through Jareth's labyrinth. Now an actress whose career is about to take off, Sarah has come to realize that something is missing from her life. Was defeating him that evening right? And is Jareth truly the villain or perhaps he is something more?
1. A Night In

Just an idea for a fan fiction that I wanted to try. Sorry for the short chapter. Lengthier chapters will come soon.

Please do review as I like to see if you all like where this story is going and/or if I need to improve something in my writing.

Labyrinth (c) The Jim Henson Company

* * *

 **Chapter 1: A Night In**

She was doing okay, wasn't she? Sometimes Sarah didn't even know. In truth, she was doing okay, better than okay. At twenty five, she had established herself pretty well after years of working hard in high school and college before finally living off of theater wages and tips from her job as a waitress. But doing okay? No. She was doing well. She had just been accepted for a leading role in a large upcoming play. Not everyone her age breaking into theater could say that.

And yet, something was off. Something was missing.

Laying her head on her table, her gaze went to her empty wine glass. She could see a few drops of the sweet red wine she had downed a few minutes ago. It was stupid, silly even, that she was in the kitchenette of her tiny apartment drinking a glass of wine alone tonight. She ought to be out, downtown with her friends, celebrating her accomplishment. A young woman in the prime of her life. But here she was.

Sarah sighed before sluggishly getting up. She reached for the wine glass and put it in her dish washer. She then walked like a zombie to her bedroom. She didn't know why, but for some reason she felt as if most of her energy had been somehow taken from her.

She crashed on to her bed, gazing for a moment at the ceiling before rolling on her bed to face the small book shelf across from her. The book shelf was crammed with all sorts of literature, everything from biographies of famous actors to paperback science fiction novels. But among the books, she could see clearly _that_ book, the book that symbolized a seeming end of her childhood and transition into adulthood, _The Labyrinth_.

She hadn't read the book since that night when everything changed, when she had made a stupid wish and entered the world of her fantasies. She hadn't called on the goblins or the friends she had made in the Underground for years now.

"For no reason at all…" Sarah said to herself.

She stood up from the bed and grabbed the book off of the shelf. She needed to be close to that world again. Holding the aged red leather bound book, she remembered everything from that night in perfect detail. She had braved the labyrinth and faced _him_. She had defeated him, even if he had tried to give her her dreams. She was a child then, but now she was a woman.

Did he still remember her or think of her? Or had all been just a dream? Despite her memories, she truly didn't know.

Sarah opened the book, flipping through the pages, rereading the tale of how the Goblin King had fallen in love with a girl and had given her certain powers. It was true that while she had acted out the story countless times she had never imagined that the heroine would be her.

But the ending. Something never felt right. It felt like something too had been missing in her life since she had challenged the Goblin King. Did Jareth give her meaning, a purpose?

Maybe it was the alcohol or the overwhelming sense of loneliness and nostalgia, but she needed to see him, even if it was in her dreams one last time.

"I wish…" Sarah started. "I wish that the goblins would come and take me away, right now."

Nothing happened.

 _Figures._ Sarah thought. _The whole thing was just my imagination._

She put the book down on her bedside table before pulling on the chain to the overhead light of her bedroom. She laid her head on her pillow, closing her eyes to sleep. But as she closed her eyes, Sarah swore she saw a familiar silhouette against her wall.


	2. An Old Story Continues

Notes: Yay for an update to this story.

Thank you for the follows.

Please do review as I like to see if you all like where this story is going and/or if I need to change something in my writing.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: An Old Story Continues**

 _Love scenes. She always hated them. It was not because she was against romance or even the idea of love at first sight. It was more to do with the fact that as an actress she had never been very good at them. That in itself was a real shame, considering she had been cast in the role of one of the most famous lovers in literature, Juliet._

 _Sarah stared out at her audience. Their faces were blurs from the stage lights. She knew that the spot light was on her and she had better not mess this up. She took in a deep breath before starting the scene, that classic balcony scene._

"Miss Williams! Put more passion into your words. This is a love scene, not a list of groceries!" _She heard the criticism of the director in her head._

"Imagine I'm your boyfriend. You do have a boyfriend don't you?" _Her costar, playing the part of Romeo, had told her._

 _A boyfriend? Had she ever had a boyfriend? No. She had to use her imagination for this. The play had showed that Juliet was so eager to be with her Romeo. It didn't matter that they had only just met at party in the scene before and suddenly had intense feelings for each other. It was a story. Time in stories could lose its basis in reality._

 _Still, only a few hours before engaging in such an important situation? How silly was that in real life. It was a relationship set up for disaster._

"But I'll be there for you as the world falls down."

 _There had been dancing, a passionate waltz. She had danced, the partner before her handsome. Someone that she had known only a few short hours and yet she…_

" _Remembering our dance, love? It was rather intimate." She felt hot breathe against her neck. A shiver crawled up her spin. She quickly turned to face the villain that shouldn't be there. He couldn't be there._

 _Before she could do anything, the stage below her feet began to crumble, her false Elizabethan world falling down around her._

* * *

Sarah groaned. She had had the nightmare again that caused her heart to pound and sweat to appear on her brow. It was odd for her to have it now after all these years, though. Perhaps it was from the stress of her upcoming role. While the role promised to be her break out role and was perfect in every way for her, it did come with a hefty amount of stress.

She had absolutely no clue what time it was and while she didn't really care to know, she knew that she had to be up early for she had a lot of work to do. Eyes closed, she felt around for the small table she kept near her bed, knowing that her charging mobile phone would be on it. The alarm had been set on the device, but she could check it to see how much longer she had to sleep and hopefully drift her mind far away from that nightmare of the past.

There was no table and certainly no mobile phone. There was only the feeling of cold stone. Stone? She did not have stone in her little bedroom in her tiny apartment.

Immediately, she snapped her eyes open, not sure what to expect, but frightened nonetheless.

The cozy walls of her bedroom were not around her, nor was she on the street, or even worse a parking garage or a stranger's house. But she was somewhere completely unimaginable, yet it was a place she had been to before ten years ago, the broken castle of the Goblin King. This was where she had defeated him, had chosen to save her baby brother over indulging in her childish dreams.

"This…This can't be!" She was in shock and not even her action of sitting up on the stone floor helped. She was here again, in the labyrinth. This place was real. All of her senses were telling her that. This place did not live in her book or her young imagination. And if this place was real then he was too.

"You're awake, I see." The familiar villain said. Sarah's blood ran cold.

He came before her from under an archway, wearing an outfit of white with a matching billowing cape. Somehow with the sharp cut of it, he looked vicious, mean, instead of the soft, broken Goblin King she had seen as a teenager that had in sugar words begged for her to surrender to him. But Jareth's appearance was the same as before, unaged by time. His gaze was cold and calculating. She knew that he was planning something, but as to what, she knew not. But Sarah knew that while he seemed the same, she had changed. She had grown into the body and mind of a woman.

"Would you have preferred a kiss to wake you, sleeping beauty? You have dreamed about it before, waking up to true love's kiss." Jareth continued. He walked close to her, stopping just in front of her. "It would seem in your case not all of your dreams come true. Or rather you refuse to give in to them, to listen to your desires. Such a pity."

Her dreams. He had offered her dreams the last time they met. All she had to have done was give up Toby in exchange. She did not give into him then and she would not do so now. Whatever Jareth was planning, whatever he wanted from her, she would not give to it to him.

"I defeated you." She replied. The words she had spoken to him as a teenager had been right. Even if her adventure had differences from the story, the power of the words seemed to have held true. He had no power over her. Her will was as strong as his.

"That you did." Sarah could hear the bitterness in Jareth's voice. It was painful thorn in his side that seemed to infect his very being to the core. A decade had passed, but he could not let go. From his tone, the woman was able to figure out that she must have been the first one to not only challenge him, but had also won against him.

"Yet here we are again and I'm afraid that your certain powers have long since expired." Jareth squat down to her level and reached to cup her face in his hand. His hand felt warm through the white leather glove. If it weren't for how their story was continuing, Sarah might have thought his touch comforting. But there was mischief in his mismatched eyes, along with anger and sadness. "You saved your brother, but now who will save you?"

Who would save her? She was confused for only half a second before remembering her wish. Damn her for making wishes without fully understanding the consequences. Stupid girl!

"But I didn't mean it." It was a pathetic line, she knew. A throwback to her teenage years when Jareth had first met her.

"Oh, you didn't?" He seemed amused by that.

Sarah wrapped one of her hands around Jareth's wrist to push him away from touching her face. She released him when his hand was away.

"Do you take every wish made to you so literally?" She hissed at him.

"I believe you have heard the saying 'be careful what you wish for.' Are you to blame me for your lack of paying attention to the warnings?" He smirked at her. "I thought you would have known them. You did seem to know the story thoroughly, my little actress." She may have grown up, but she was still a child. She had gone back to her toys and costumes to become an actress, an adult playing in a world of make believe. "Then again, you always had a habit of just going for things without paying attention to the consequences. Is that why life was so unfair to you?"

He was playing with her, teasing her. Sarah would have no more of that. She stood up and glared down at him.

"Shut up." She snapped at him before turning her back to him. "You know nothing!"

How could he? Couldn't Jareth see that she had grown up, that she had matured? She had been through many things that weren't fair without comment. That was just the way life was, especially in her field. It was true that she had been held high regard in high school and college, but agencies and theaters didn't care if you played a leading role in your senior year. They only cared about if you fit whatever their vision for the characters they had at the audition. It had taken hard work for her to land her upcoming role, for her to convince the casting crew and the director to take a chance on her. And she had done it all on her own.

"I know that you haven't been the same since facing the unnumbered hardships in my labyrinth, or rather since facing me." She felt his arms wrap around her, holding her close. It had been a mistake for her to turn to her back to him. "I know that you miss me. That even now you wonder if you made the right decision about defeating me. I know that you _want_ me."

How could he know all that when she didn't even know it herself?

She struggled in his hold, trying to fight against him, against his words. She had done so before she would do so again, no matter how strong the Goblin King was.

"You lost something here. I will give you the chance to find it again. Perhaps this time you will see what your truly desire, Sarah."

With that, the pair of them disappeared in a cloud of glitter.

* * *

Notes: And yes for those you who realized it, the play in Sarah's dream is in fact _Romeo and Juliet_.

 _Romeo and Juliet_ (c) William Shakespeare


	3. A Place to Stay

Notes: Sorry for the wait. I recently started a work opportunity, so time for me has been short. But I will continue to update when I can. But anyway, here's a new chapter.

Thank you for the fave and the follows.

Please do review.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: A Place to Stay**

Sarah coughed as the cloud of glitter that had consumed her and Jareth cleared. She felt the Goblin King's arms around her released her. She was grateful for that, knowing that she would not have to fight him any longer to let her go. As soon as she was released, she moved forward as much as she could, with the goal to get as far away from Jareth as possible.

She couldn't go that far, she soon realized. Jareth hadn't taken her to the beginning of his twisted labyrinth again. No. Sarah now found herself in a bedroom, a chamber of the Castle beyond the Goblin City, she supposed. Admittedly, she hadn't seen much of the Goblin King's castle during her last visit, though it had certainly seemed bigger than it looked on the outside. It was bound to have chambers and storage closets, along with, what she realized she was pretty lucky not to end up in, dungeons.

Sarah took a moment to gaze around the room. It was clean, though it had a slightly musty smell, as if this was the first time that it had been used in years. It appeared that guests to the labyrinth were seldom. She saw a vanity in the corner with an old, but familiar blue statue of the Goblin King himself along with her old music box. She hadn't seen either item in years, having discarded them shortly after that night. Was Jareth still seeing her as the teenager he had met a decade ago or was he pushing something on her that would stem from her memories of their past?

"It's…nice." She was reluctant to tell him that. Anything close to a thank you would give him an upper hand that Sarah did not want him to have. But he seemed to have figured that out and grinned at her.

"You're welcome." He said. "Consider this your new home. I can be cruel, but inducing you to madness by locking you in the dungeons is not… how do you say? My style. You really were too quick to cast me as your villain, love."

"Well thank goodness for that." She glared at him. "But we both know that you can be cruel. You are dangerous." The book had made him a villain for a reason. The lore that she had read about goblins and fae during her early teenaged years when she had been obsessed with the fantastical tale of _The Labyrinth_ had told her about how evil those supernatural beings could be. During her adventure, Jareth had hit her hard with several challenges, but now she could see that the challenges she had faced as a teenager were hardly the worst of the cards that the Goblin King had to play.

"Your eyes can be so cruel. You judge me, yet it was you who made the wishes. Do not seek to blame me for doing my job and taking on the role you assigned me to please you." He replied. It was clear to Sarah that Jareth would not be taking the blame for his actions all those years ago. Nor would he do so with his plans for her now.

She did have some words to say about that, but it would do her no good. She was not a child anymore. She was not the same person as the girl Jareth had met before. She was stronger and she would make him see that.

"You said that I lost something." She decided to take the conversation in a different direction. As generous as Jareth was being by giving her a room to stay in, she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She had a life to return to and a play to rehearse for. Sarah didn't have any time to waste.

"Yes. But to find what you lost, you must figure out what it is you lost. Understand?" Sarah could tell that he was not giving her an actual answer.

"Quit with the riddles It's annoying." Her voice was cold. She detested that Jareth wasn't being clear with her. Out of all the beings who lived in the Underground that she had met, she knew that Jareth, while full of pride, was among the most intelligent beings there that gave her clear words.

"It is not a riddle. You need to understand what it is you lost before you can reclaim it." He clarified. "I believe that you will have some help along the way. I'm sure your _friends_ will be eager to assist you."

Her friends. While she noticed that Jareth had said the word like poison, no doubt believing them to be traitors by giving her help to solve the labyrinth, Sarah could not help but feel a deep twinge of guilt. She had promised to call on Hoggle and the others from time to time for no reason at all. But over the years, she had grown up, lost interest in this world of fantasies and dreams. Would they forgive her?

Jareth moved towards the door of the room.

"You can start your search in the morning. You know not what monsters can come forth at night." He warned her.

"The only monster I see is you." She snapped at him. He was the villain. Even if he was being generous, he was the master of this game. And with her wish, she was in his world, where he was king.

"Oh? I wonder what your basis for comparison is." He looked at her. He could see that she had grown up. Her body had filled out nicely and she had become quite beautiful and clever. But she still had a fire within her, a rebellious spirit. She may have felt like she was different than that night so long ago, but to him she was very much the same, just older.

He turned from her. "Welcome back to my labyrinth, Sarah."

He was gone a second later before she could reply.

* * *

 _Broken. Jareth was so broken. He was alone, defeated. It was true that he had underestimated the girl, which had been his own fault. Even so, this wasn't supposed to happen. The others had always chosen their dreams or had given up. But then Sarah had come along and had been his ruin._

 _He lay in his bed in pain, weakened more than he thought he would be. He hated being like this, feeling so pathetic. This was not how the Goblin King should be. He was meant to be strong, to be the one to be the victor. What would the others think of him now?_

 _Jareth let out groan of pain as he reached for a red leather bound copy of_ The Labyrinth _on his table. It was his own copy of the story, an exact twin to the one that Sarah had in her possession._

 _The story was their story and now it had finally come true. Of course, there were some manipulations to it, but the premise had been the same._

 _He turned to the end of the book. There was nothing at the end besides a cliché happily ever after ending for the heroine. Nothing was written about him, nothing about the pain he was feeling nor what would happen to him. That story had ended._

 _Jareth threw the book down on the floor. It didn't help him in the slightest. Indeed, his character's demise in the book had been left unclear as to whether he had been defeated or had died. He had now learned that he, at least, had not been projected to die by Sarah's hands, no matter how powerful her words were._

 _He grimaced and managed to sit up and get out of his bed. There was someone that he needed to see, the author of the story._


End file.
